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Wow that was a trip and a half! Great memories are now deeply etched into my soul. For me it was a far bigger 13 days than I could have imagined – & that’s significant given the number of World Champs I’ve been to and times I’ve raced in Mexico. Simply put, life as a coach is complex, colourful and often exhausting but at the same time wonderfully rich.

Team photo, the night before the event

We traveled with a large NZ contingent however I had the responsibility for coordinating the 10 Team Traction athletes before, during and after each of the 3 events. We had long days of action under intense heat, humidity and competitive stresses. Our athletes arrived in Mexico in different phases of preparation – some trained without a hitch and others gradually realised they were not in the best form possible.

It doesn’t really matter how you arrive on the scene; what you want on event day is your absolute best performance under the circumstances. In these harsh climes the way you manage your day makes all the difference. If you overheat you will cook yourself, however if you under-perform you will wonder if it was all worth it.

Another hot session in the heat lab

We had trained in the Medical School’s heat lab before leaving & in hindsight everyone thought this was incredibly useful exercise. Each one of our athletes stood on the start line knowing just how tough it was going to be to complete the event without fainting from heat exhaustion. Watch this video of Jonathon Brownlee falling apart – this happened to a number of athletes and is an example of the negative effects of mind over matter and ultimately poor judgement.

This was the World Champs in a very hot, humid and unforgiving land. To boot the coach is not exempt from sickness and I was struck down with ‘digestive issues’ over the key event days, which added to the multifaceted management of my days.

My main concern was ensuring that each athlete was managed in a way that worked for them - some athletes require a considerable amount of reassurance and others prepare more independently. There is no single unique way to prepare two different athletes; however the coach must have each athlete stand on the start line feeling as comfortable and confident as possible.

I’ve bigger expectations on myself to perform as a great coach than I have expectation on any athlete to be a great athlete.

The event is ITU’s premier event and we’d trained very hard over many months in preparation for it. I was also well aware that we had travelled to one of the World’s premier tourist destinations and that we needed to enjoy this opportunity. For many, this trip to Cozumel would be a once in a lifetime event & a very expensive one at that. As an elite athlete I had put too much pressure on myself on several occasions & I’d made a pact with myself, at that time, that I would never squirrel myself away at key events focusing on the outcome at the expense of the journey. As a coach I believe that a happy relaxed athlete is more likely to perform than an up-tight pressured one.

Julia with a local

I believe our team had the right balance of fun and function about it.

By the end of the 2nd event, we all needed a few days rest before the final standard distance event on the Sunday. We had a bit of down time to explore the island. It was during this period that Amy and I had the great fortune to bump into the turtle conservationists and had a unique experience of releasing turtles into the sea.

I’d like to congratulate every one of our team – athletes and supporters – we had an awesome time and everyone went about supporting each other and the other Kiwis. We made new friends and have returned to NZ much richer people for the experience.

Personally I’d like to thank Viv and David for providing me support over the week. Logistically the team benefited immensely from having Viv act as the travel manager in difficult circumstances. The Hitchins also provided a team vehicle which made our lives so much easier.

I’d like to thank Amy who logistically organised me to get to the event and back safely and cheaply. Amy had to put up with a roommate who was unwell for most of the trips, whilst at the same time manage her own 2 events. Thanks a million!

Many thanks to all the supporters who made my life easier during the week by managing their athlete’s health so well.

Thanks to the team of athletes who put their heart and souls into delivering their best efforts each event and under extreme conditions. You all did yourself proud and I’m rapt with you all – great fun to be around, great athletes and superb teammates.

Finally, I’d like to thank Ange who supports me each and every day and allows me the stability to bring energy to every session, as well as being a central part of our team.

How many times do you hear an athlete who has just done something very cool, respond when congratulated, that it wasn’t really that good and they weren’t really that happy with it? You know those athletes that no matter how well they do they turn the situation into a negative or at least not really a positive. They don’t recover quickly after disappointments and really aren’t that much fun to be around. Often you will see them ‘choking’ when the pressure comes on.

To be honest we all can give ourselves a hard time however if we had friends that treated us the way that many of us treat ourselves, they wouldn’t be our friends for very long. Imagine a friend who calls up just to complain–about you. Imagine your mate saying things like “I told you so” when you make a mistake on course, or someone who encourages you to give up instead of encouraging you to do your best.

Everyone has experienced performances that are not up to scratch – the question is have we undermined our performance without knowing it; why have we allowed it to happen; and what can we do to avoid it?

Anxiety is part and parcel of any competition and in the right levels it’s useful however many of us start building our anxiety well before the event and it becomes increasingly out of control as we get closer to the event start. With increased anxiety our confidence levels plummet and we start sabotaging our performance with negative self-talk, but internally and externally to others. The mental anguish physically leads onto constricted muscles and shallower breathing which is akin to putting another obstacle in the way or monkey on your back. So you start off with the monkey and as the event breaks down the monkey tightens it’s hold and if you’re not careful you end up completely smashing your confidence and any sense of enjoyment. Sport is physically and mentally tough but we don’t need to make it harder by putting road blocks up for ourselves. I want you to be enjoying triathlon and not coming to training sessions thinking “I’ll never get better” or “this is a waste of time”.

Negative self-talk gets us down and needs to be worked on to the same degree that physical skills are. Our head is the CEO of the body and needs to set a can-do and stable environment for the body to excel within. We need to remove unneeded and unwarranted mental distractions for our own personal health.

What do Sports Researchers say about self-talk & performance

There is overwhelming empirical evidence that positive self-talk is an important cognitive component related to motor performance or in other words how we view something will affect how we undertake the task and its outcomes.

Conversely negative self-talk is more likely to lead to disappointment and loss of confidence and enjoyment.

There are different types of self-talk which can be used for different functions within a sporting situation. I’ve categorised from the most common to least common in the table below:

Types of Self-Talk

Self-talk can be used to improve:

Focus …… “ no thoughts, just concentrate”; "focus on the present"

Technique/Instruction …… “bend your knees”; “swish”

Calming/Relaxing …… “ I love competition”; “I feel good”

Motivation …… “ You can do it”; “You’re on fire”

Self-confidence …… “I’m mentally tough”; “I trained well for this”

Interestingly research has confirmed that you don’t even have to believe the self-talk statement and that just saying the statement leads to a state in which performance is improved.

Challenging Negative Self Talk:

Learning to dispute negative thoughts takes training - time and practice. Once you start looking at it, you'll probably be surprised by how much of your thinking is inaccurate, exaggerated, or focused on the negatives of the situation.

1.How much of your self-talk is negative or not useful? Think carefully back to situations in which you are under pressure to perform – what are you saying to yourself and those around you? Is it, “I can’t do this” or is it “I can do this”? The first step to changing patterns of self-talk is recognising you are using negatives.

2.Will I accept the thought or replace it with another thought and/or statement?

Replacing Negatives – what with?

1.Focus on the process and not your emotions, and certainly not anything that is going to take your focus away from the process at hand. Give yourself the best physical and mental platform to work from.

2.Start developing cues that will help you in situations you find difficult.

Example 1: When you are at a start line think about a can of baked beans to represent the “I can” statement – you may say “can of baked beans” out loud repetitively

Example 2: If you have a habit of dropping your hips when getting tired running visualise a cheetah or say “cheetah”, as representing you

Developing a Self-Talk Plan for Your Tri Event

Self-talk is designed to strengthen self-confidence through focusing on the positive and eliminating the limitations of negative thinking.

You don’t want to have a long sentence when you can have a couple of key words or a symbol that crystallises where you want your mind and body to be. You need to practice these words when training for the event – there is no use turning up on event day with training. Develop a plan and start practicing.

Examples of key words:

Fire – use at the start line to remind you to take off quickly

Push through – to remind you to push water through under your body

Can – to remind you that you can do your best

Breath – encourage you to breath deeply and calm down in the final 60 secs before the start

Cheetah – encourage stance when running

1. Identify the times you become anxious and need to alter or include a self-talk plan. These maybe times when you are likely to lose your technique or times of competitive stress within the event.

2. Develop a plan for these key times. You may divide the event into different parts chronologically as follows -

a. Pre-competition (before getting to the event)

b. Pre-start (in the final 10 mins before starting & when standing on the start line)

c. Start of the swim

d. Mid Swim

e. Pre-transition

f. Etc

3. Write down your key words somewhere you can see them and start ingraining the new way of approaching sports practice and events.

by Dr. Stacy Sims

August 17, 2015

We consider it a major coup to have landed Dr. Stacy T. Sims, MSc, PhD, as a monthly columnist for Ella CyclingTips. Sims has contributed to the environmental exercise physiology and sports nutrition field for more than 15 years as both an athlete and a scientist. The chief research officer/co-founder of Osmo Hydration, Dr. Sims served an exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist in the human performance lab at Stanford University from 2007-2012 where she specialised in sex differences of environmental and nutritional considerations for recovery and performance. Her personal interest in sex differences and performance has been the precedence of her academic and consulting career, always looking at true physiology to apply innovative solutions in the sport nutrition world.

Not only an elite athlete herself, Dr. Sims has extensive experience working with athletes at all levels: from beginning recreational athletes to the Olympians and Tour de France-caliber cyclists. In 2012 she left her full time academic position at Stanfard to become a mum, launch a start up (Osmo Hydration ) and start her own consultancy practice – all to disseminate science into real world applications for athletes, coaches, educators, and colleagues.

Future topics from Dr. Sims will cover: the menstrual cycle and menstrual dysfunction, what menopause and perimenopause means to the female athlete, why popular diets often don’t work for women, how hormones affect hydration recommendations and why GI distress is more common in women than men. If there’s other topics of interest you’d like to see Dr. Sims tackle, feel free to let us know in the comments section

Jessi Braverman

I’ll let you in on a little secret. My career is based upon one question: “Why?”. As a female athlete, I was always given training, nutrition and recovery information based on science, but that science was always from a population of 18-20 year old college-aged males. Until the 1980’s, it was widely assumed that the physiological responses to exercise did not truly differ between men and women. This explains why all the training, nutrition, recovery schedules I’ve seen, and for the most part still exist, are recommendations that have been generalised to women – without really questioning if this direct transfer was viable.

So as an athlete, I began to ask “Why?” in response to what I was observing and experiencing. Why did women have less heat tolerance when they were just about to have their period? Why did my female crew teammates recover less quickly than the guys after a heavy intense workout? Why does it seem harder for women to “lean up” when following the same advice as their age- and fitness-matched male counterparts? These are just some general questions, but throughout my career I have always asked: Why is this different for me and my athletic female friends and clients?

There are many angles to address here, but I want to specifically focus on the physiology and nutritional aspects of recovery. Regardless of gender, if you don’t recover, you won’t achieve your performance potential. In this vein, I want to give as much correct information to all you women (and the male coaches!) so you can start recovering properly.

First, let’s look at the differences of fuel utilisation during exercise, which may help explain why women need a bit less carbohydrate per hour than men. This allows us to create specific recovery nutrition guidelines for women.

Estrogen decreases the reliance on liver glycogen, increases the use of fat and decreases amino acid breakdown during exercise. These fuel responses have been attributed to a sex difference between catecholamine responses during exercise. Men release a larger amount of catecholamines at a given moderate-high intensity exercise load than women who have similar training status. This glycogen sparing, increased fat use is even greater during the high hormone phase (luteal phase) of the menstrual cycle when estrogen is at its highest concentrations.

How does this translate to every day practical use? Women have a greater capacity for burning fat and sparing glycogen (both in the liver and the muscle) in the high hormone phase. To maintain the capacity to hit intensities, women should look to stay on top of carbohydrate intake during exercise (e.g using glucose tablets before each high intensity interval), but during the low hormone phase, women can afford to ingest less exogenous carbohydrate than her age and fitness matched male counterpart (think: 45-55 grams per hour as opposed to the 65-80 grams per hour).

So does this mean women need to eat more fat? Actually, no. As long as a women’s current intake is approximately 30 percent of her daily caloric intake, adding fat is not necessary. When fat intake is 10-20 percent upping intake of “good” fats will ensure rapid restoration of fuel to muscles.

Researchers have looked at the recovery phase in men and women. Although women metabolise and use more fatty acids during prolonged exercise and have greater fat stores than men, women have a greater ability to maintain energy substrate stores during exercise and during recovery. Three hours post-exercise, men still have higher rates of blood glucose fluctuations and lower glycogen stores, whereas women are relatively close to the pre-exercise state (side note- this also contributes to the harder-to-get-lean factor many women face as they have less of a window of elevated metabolic state and fatty acid use at rest; this is something I’ll discuss in detail in a future column).

PROTEIN/AMINO ACIDS AND ENDURANCE EXERCISE

It is well known that carbohydrate is the predominant energy used for continuous endurance events with fat oxidation playing an increasingly important role over two hours; however amino acids (from circulation and muscle protein breakdown) can provide up to 10 percent of total energy during endurance exercise. The use of amino acids can be increased during higher intensity, longer duration exercise, but also if there is low glycogen availability and/or a habitually high-protein dietary strategy.

Women oxidise less protein and leucine than men even though there is no sex difference in the muscle enzyme that controls the intramuscular use of branch-chained amino acids. Although endurance exercise does lower the activity of the enzyme responsible for amino acid use, female endurance athletes run the risk of being in a negative leucine balance. During the high hormone phase of the menstrual cycle, progesterone (or a lower estrogen to progesterone ratio) increases the use of protein during exercise. This phase difference is important to note for recovery. Amino acids are key to immune function as well as muscle adaptations to stress.

AMOUNT OF PROTEIN

In men, mixed muscle and myofibrillar protein synthesis rates are enhanced post-exercise with a small ingestion of protein of around 10 grams of protein, but further enhanced after the ingestion of approximately 20 grams protein. Greater quantities (up to 40 grams), do not increase synthesis rates, but increase amino acid oxidation and urea production.

In women, estrogen inhibits muscle protein synthesis, progesterone enhances muscle breakdown and a sex difference (of hepatic origin) exists in amino acid oxidation. With these additional factors, research findings indicate muscle protein synthesis is enhanced in women post-exercise with the ingestion of approximately 30 grams of protein. The leucine content is the contender here. Muscle protein synthesis is reliant on tissue-leucine concentration, and the effects of estrogen on protein synthesis inhibit the oxidation of leucine within the muscle.

TYPES OF PROTEIN AND TIMING OF THEIR CONSUMPTION

Dietary proteins differ in their amino acid composition as well as rates of digestion and absorption – all which have measureable effects on post-exercise muscle protein synthesis and whole body protein synthesis. The Essential Amino Acid (EAA) content of the protein, in particular the leucine content, can dramatically affect muscle protein synthesis. For example, compared with casein and soy sources of protein, whey protein has distinct anabolic characteristics (and anti-inflammatory properties) which result in a greater synthesis of muscle protein both at rest and after exercise. When the overnight fast is taken into consideration, casein provided before sleep is absorbed more rapidly than casein provided during the day, increasing rates of muscle protein synthesis by approximately 22 percent as compared to a placebo and 10 percent as compared to whey.

WHAT ABOUT HYDRATION?

Plasma volume is the watery component of blood that reduces the thickness of the blood and allows blood to flow quickly to working tissues. When we begin to sweat, it is the plasma volume that is lost first because this is the fluid that helps make up the sweat. We sweat to remove heat.

As women, we have an elevation of our resting core temperature in the luteal phase of the natural menstrual cycle and in the last 15 days of oral contraceptive pill (OCP) due to elevated progesterone concentrations. The increased progesterone stimulates the phrenic nerve, increasing respiration, and it also acts to increase sweat production later than in the low hormone times of the menstrual cycle. So, with elevated progesterone, there is a natural re-setting of the baseline body temperature by as much as 0.3 -0.5 °Celsius. Coupled with an increased time to sweat during the luteal (high hormone) phase, it can be seen that athletic performance is compromised in the luteal phase due to higher body temperature and less ability to get rid of the heat.

What’s more is that high estrogen and progesterone act on the kidney’s hormones to reduce plasma volume, a drop of up to eight percent from ovulation to the mid-luteal phase, and this fluid goes between the cells. This causes the bloating often associated with PMS. In general, during the luteal phase and the high hormone phase of the menstrual cycle, women are less able to cope with the heat and have a reduced ability to sweat to remove the heat from deep inside the body.

HOW DO I COMPENSATE FOR THIS SHIFT IN TEMPERATURE AND BODY WATER?

Before training: in the 90 minutes leading up to your training session, you need to drink as much as comfortable (~500 millilitres) of low-carbohydrate fluid and/or eat watery fruit and vegetables (salted tomatoes or salted watermelon). This is also good time to use a sodium-based fluid load drink (look for a sodium citrate + sodium bicarbonate mix rather than sodium chloride) to maximise body fluid and sodium stores.

During training: Similar to baseline needs, what you drink during your ride depends on several factors including temperature, environment, time of day, intensity of training, sex differences. It is important to go into a race or training situation hydrated. Remember it is much easier to come back from a low sugar ‘bonk’ (a few minutes after a bit of food) than it is to come back from dehydration (several hours for the kidneys and hormones to kick in for fluid balance)! Your fluid intake during training should allow you to maintain power towards the end of your ride. I recommend drinking a “functional hydration” (three-four percent carbohydrate beverage/three-four grams carbohydrate per 100ml) and basing your initial fluid needs on drinking to thirst.

Keep in mind here, drinking to thirst is not THE answer, you must start your session hydrated, then use thirst as a guide for the first three or four hours. Don’t become too thirsty (not drinking then all of a sudden needing to gulp copious fluid; instead sip sip, nibble nibble). If you are concerned that drinking to thirst is not optimal for you, the most recent scientific consortium guidelines recommend not exceeding 800ml/hour in temperate conditions and not to exceed 900ml/hour for hotter and/or more intense rides. Remember this is based on generalised guidelines. The best way to tap into what you specially need is to objectively measure your hydration status using pee sticks.

After Training: After you exercise, as a general rule, you need to slowly rehydrate over the course of 2-3 hours. Don’t gulp fluid. This is counterproductive for rehydration. Instead consume a combination of an protein-based drink (the amino acids help with rehydration) and watery foods for optimal rehydration and recovery

HOW DO I TAKE ALL THIS INFO AND APPLY IT?

There are several key points presented here that you can take aboard and apply to your training, racing and recovery.

1. Women have greater fat stores and access fat to a greater degree during exercise, sparing liver glycogen, but during the high hormone phase of the menstrual cycle, this carbohydrate sparing mechanism can work against intensity and performance. In this phase, have extra quick hits of sugar in the form of glucose tablets, jelly beans or energy chews to maximise your interval sessions, racing and other high intensity events.

2. Women don’t oxidise as many branch-chained amino acids during exercise as men, but in the high hormone phase of the menstrual cycle, there is a greater reliance on protein during exercise (and at rest). Ideally, post exercise ingestion should comprise around 20-30 grams of high-quality protein within 30 minutes of exercise. Any delay compromises tissue leucine concentration, and enhances muscle tissue breakdown. Equally important is consuming subsequent doses of approximately 20 grams of protein across the day. Meal content should be around 0.25g/kg with one last dose of protein before bed. This strategy will support muscle adaptation, body fat loss (with negative energy balance) and lean mass preservation.

3. The post-exercise recovery phase: three hours post-exercise, a woman’s metabolism is pretty close to pre-exercise/baseline levels, so the two-hour recovery window after the first of a 2x day exercise session needs to be carefully planned in order to restore the muscles’ fuel stores

4. The quick return to baseline metabolism also contributes to the reduced ability to “lean up” in women. Again, women need to take advantage of the two-hour window to promote body composition change and glycogen/fat store recovery.

Hit this link to take you to an article posted by Jack Daniels on this topic.

Summary points:

Research shows you shouldn’t be too worried about losing significant fitness if your break from running is less than two weeks.

You’ll lose some conditioning in your aerobic system and muscles, but pre-inactivity fitness will return quickly. Again, this assumes that you have built a healthy and consistent base of training of 4-6 months prior to taking time off. It’s not the end of your career if you haven’t been training for this long; it simply means that the reduction in fitness will be slightly more pronounced.

After two weeks of not training, significant reductions in fitness begin to occur and you’ll have about 2-8 weeks of training (depending on the length of inactivity) ahead of you to get back to your previous level of fitness.

The Swissman is the newest addition to the ‘extreme’ series of triathlon events that make up the Allxtri events - you may have heard of the Norseman and/or Celtman. Each of the events has a distinctive local style about it. Previously I’d heard a little about the Norseman including diving off a boat into cold fiords and something about uphill marathons. I’d never thought seriously about doing another triathlon, let alone an ironman length event. Besides, hadn’t I done enough in my youth?! I’d only ever participated in one ironman – 1996 NZIM – in which I’d finished as 2nd elite female, but it was in a totally relieved state as the long distance training simply wasn’t my cuppa tea.

So how did I get caught up in competing in another IM distance event, and especially in one that could arguably be considered one of the toughest and most extreme in the world?

As some of you will be aware I spent 10 years racing as a professional triathlete with highlights including ITU World Cup Series Champion (won 4 World Cup events) and ITU World Long Distance Champion (4kS-120kB-30kR). Of the 10 years living internationally I spent 7 seasons based in Paris and racing throughout Europe. I loved the variety of events and especially the tough hilly courses. I have spent the last 12 years as a happily retired & somewhat chubby coach with great tri memories.

Early in 2013, with my 50th birthday fast approaching, I started to think about an appropriate celebratory activity to undertake. I couldn’t ignore the fact that undertaking a triathlon would be appropriate so I made a decision to enter the 2014 Wanaka Half IM. Shortly after entering this event, my friend Paula Drew pointed out an event she’d seen online – the Swissman Extreme Triathlon. I had a look at the video and course photos – love at first sight!! All I could think was ‘wow’, mountains, mountains, and more mountains. Not just mountains but finishing alongside the mighty North Face of the Eiger! What a challenge that event would be, I mused! Another lure being that a support team was required to assist the athlete throughout the event and it was compulsory that a supporter completed the last 10k alongside their athlete. It must be extreme!

So I immediately proceeded to get in touch with the event organisers to ask if I could enter the 2014 event and bring some other Kiwis with me. I was told that they hadn’t actually tested the course as yet but given it proved safe, they’d run an event in 2014 with a field of 250 and entry by lottery.

I watched with interest as the first event was completed and proved a success. Time to start training for this super event! The organisers opened the 2014 edition to 250 athletes and I managed to get my entry confirmed. That’s when the real work started ….

Anyone who knew me during the last year will have known that I was training for the event but probably didn’t realise what a challenge that was for me. I’m sure everyone considers that a former World Champ would have no issues completing an event with a year-long lead up. People may feel that ex-champions don’t feel the same stresses and strains as other people – it simply isn’t so. I’m understating things when I say that it was hard to get in the mileage. I never actually ran after a long bike ride - I was never motivated enough! I spent an awful lot of money on sports specialists and masseuses (when I couldn’t con my partner into taking pity and giving me a massage).

The Wanaka Half came and went – I really wasn’t very fit, but managed to get through the event without walking! I finished the event knowing I had a lot of hard training ahead of me if I was going to complete the Swissman.

Fast forward five months – shortly before the Swissman, even though I only managed one 180km bike ride (thanks Peter Kane) and even though I didn’t ever run off a long bike ride I was sure I’d manage OK and would probably produce 5:15ish per km pace for the run.

So Swissman event day snuck up – forecast to be settled weather. Conditions turned out to be beautiful - 22 degree lake temp; 20 degrees over the high alp passes; and 30 degrees during much of the run leg.

We all got onto the boat that took us to the swim start at 4:15am. At just after 5am the hooter went. The swim was going really well until I got my first ever cramp, within an event, at about 400m from the end – ouch. That wasn’t in the game plan - however I was the first woman to exit the water in around 55 mins. On the bike I rode the first 50k with the eventual women’s race winner. At the 50k point, and very suddenly, my body decided it was 50 yrs old, going on 100yrs, tired and wanting a break ….. perhaps a little early in the day but there was no denying it was going to be a challenge! For the following 50k, until the top of the first major climb, I was really in a nasty dark place where monsters and serpents lurk. It felt like the entire field rode past me in that section! Not only did the terrain tilt up to around 10 percent gradient at times, but the first major climb - The Tremola - had about 14kms of cobblestoned road surface. I rode around 9kmph up that climb with short spurts, riding in the concrete gutter, at 12kmph. With so much of the event still in front of me, I was fairly worried during this stage. However I gained inspiration from the cows that rang their bells in support as I continued forwards and upwards to just over 2km vertical altitude.

Most riders stopped at the top of each of the 3 cols to put on extra clothing - at 20 degrees there was no way this Kiwi was doing that! I sped down the descents, loving every twist and turn along the way. It was mind-blowingly exciting and worth every hard rotation spent on the upward legs. By the way, the climbs were taking around an hour, or more, each – nothing in the Wellington region would have prepared me for this terrain. When the organisers called this event an extreme triathlon, they clearly meant that it was both extremely beautiful and extremely difficult. The second climb up Furkapass was 2400m, and the 3rd climb to Grimsel pass topped out at 2100m.

In the final massively long descent we traversed numbers of tunnels and in one I came close to seriously damaging myself – I’d taken note of the tunnel during the course reccie and had rehearsed in my head that I’d have to take it easy through it and out the other side. There was a corner in the tunnel and a large lump in the road just coming out of it. So I stormed into the tunnel and had forgotten I was going way faster than we had been in the car – what was a tight corner in a vehicle turned into a death trap at speed on a bicycle, especially as Murphy’s Law came into play - I was met by 2 cars and 2 motorbikes coming in the opposite direction in the tunnel. I knew I was likely to cross the centre line and was fortunate that the motorcyclist saw what was happening and swerved out of the way. Thank you Mr Motorcyclist.

Some 40km later, I transitioned to the final marathon leg. A fortunate coincidence meant that my nephew Linden was based at Kandensteg International Scout Centre a few kms away at the time of the race. He rode a MTB beside me for a large portion of the marathon, providing me with drinks and much needed moral support. The first 2km gave a sense of what was to come - straight uphill (like Tip Track), then traversing behind a picturesque waterfall before slowly descending through leafy forests to run alongside Brienzsee lake.

I was jogging along relatively well until we got onto the flat and into the open sun. At that point, and in temperatures of 28-30 degrees, every cell in my body was saying “walk …. walk …”. So I did and for a very long way - in fact, until we got way up the valley and closer to Grindelwald. At this point, my brother David had joined me on the journey and he endured stints of jogging and walking as I worked at maintaining a reasonable level of effort. Number one supporter, Ange, was managing the support logistics and was preparing herself for the final 10km uphill slog – the section of the course that climbs 1000m in altitude and requires that the athlete’s supporter accompany them to the end of the race.

It was with delight that we finally made it to Grindelwald and the compulsory gear check-in. The 10km ascent alongside the North Face of the Eiger was to be the event highlight for me. It was ‘hands on knees’ stuff for the first half of the climb but it eased off slightly as we got higher. Ange and I even helped a farmer move his calves (each with a baby bell) on the way up! It was absolutely quintessential Switzerland – pastures of wildflowers, cows chewing grass and the most stunning alpine scenery surrounding us. I had read a lot of mountaineering books describing murderous climbs up the North Face, and here to my delight, we had unobstructed views of the vertical stone face for the remainder of the race. It was sublime to watch the colours change on the rock slopes as the sun limped lower in the sky

I can’t explain how wonderful the whole thing was. The final feelings of elation at the finish line in Kleine Scheidegg were a combination of numerous things: being in a stunning location; the satisfaction of a goal achieved; the sheer delight of rising to a challenge and the utter relief of achieving that challenge. I felt overjoyed and thrilled with the achievement and the event itself – more satisfaction than I’d experienced when winning any of my World, European or National titles.

I felt the euphoria that comes from an awareness of having experienced great fortune and great health on the path to creating great memories with friends and family.

I have to remind myself that these feelings only come by setting significant, personally meaningful challenges for oneself – I plan to set more challenges and push my boundaries to create some more outstanding memories in my 2nd 50 years that replicate those of the first 50!

Thank you Ange, Paula, Swissman organisers and all friends and family who’ve supported me along the way. My achievements are your achievements.

Have a look at this excellent video from Adam Young of Swim Smooth which shows triathletes coming to the end of the Western Australia IM swim. This sort of navigation is not unique to this race ... it's likely that you can improve your swimming. Come along to my swim sessions and we'll look at your navigation ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N42wl2IzPQo&feature=player_embedded

Working
with triathletes is a very rewarding coaching experience. Triathletes are on
the whole committed, enthusiastic, work-orientated, goal focussed athletes
who are a pleasure to coach. Over the past ten years however, working with
triathletes of all ages and levels, I have found that there are certain
mistakes commonly made by many triathletes in their first year or two of
training and competition.

These
mistakes are often made purely because the triathlete is so enthusiastic and
determined to do well in the sport, that they often take short cuts or make
poor training decisions based on anecdote rather than on intelligence and
logic.

Fore-warned
is fore-armed, so here are the ten most common mistakes made by triathletes
so you can avoid making them!

One:

Increasing
training volume too quickly. When many
triathletes take up the sport, early improvements in performance come from
improvements in aerobic fitness associated with increased physical activity.
This is particularly true of senior age group triathletes who may have not
exercised regularly for some time. The danger is that often a "SOME
TRAINING IS GOOD, THEREFORE MORE IS BETTER" attitude develops and before
you know it you have an overuse injury. Try to limit increases in training
loads to 2-3% per week and every four weeks have a week of rest and recovery.

Two

Ignoring
stretching and injury prevention. When
your triathlon training and racing is going well, you can be confused into
thinking you are invincible. Talk with triathletes who have been involved in
the sport for some time and they will tell you how tough it is to be injured.
Take time to develop flexibility around key joints. Develop a strong core of
abdominal and lower back strength. See a qualified and experienced sports
physiotherapist and ask for a musculo skeletal screen. The MUSCULO SKELETAL
SCREEEN is a simple physical examination conducted by a skilled sports
physiotherapist, which measures your flexibility and stability in key muscles
and joints like your back, hips, ankles and shoulders. The physio can then
give you some ideas on injury prevention and performance enhancement through
the right stretching and strengthening program. We call it a CD-ROM program,
which stands for CORE DEVELOPMENT-RANGE OF MOTION.

Three

Relying
on technology instead of technique and skills.
Triathletes are among the most committed, hard working athletes I have come
across. Many are in a great hurry to increase training volume (how much you
do) rather than taking time to develop technical excellence first then
increasing the training kilometres. When commencing a triathlon training
program, take a few months to get some coaching in all three areas. See a
swim coach for some technique work and stroke development. Work with a cycle
coach on bike set up, cornering, gear selection, pedaling, bunch riding, (AND
not forgetting bike maintenance). Consult a running coach on speed
development, running with correct technique, etc. Be wary of gimmicks with
promises of fast improvements. The short cuts you take this year, you will pay
for next year.

Four

Spending
too much time on your strongest leg instead of working on your weakest. An old coaching friend once told me, "work
on your weaknesses, your strengths can take care of themselves".
Triathletes from a running background find long slow distance running work
easy, so if given the choice they will often run rather than swim or cycle.
Every training session is an opportunity to gain a competitive edge and to
improve an aspect of performance. Take advantage of every opportunity to improve
weaknesses whilst maintaining the edge you have in your strongest leg.

Five

Avoiding
speed work. There is no doubt
that triathlon is an endurance based sport. However there are times when
speed is important and being able to move really fast on demand is a deadly
competitive skill. Speed is a tool that allows you to race and compete rather
than just finish. It is also a fundamental aspect of successful endurance
performance. The physiological concept of "speed reserve" suggests
that endurance athletes need to develop speed, so that their endurance
training and racing can be done at faster speeds. If your best time for one
hundred metres is 30 seconds (five-minute kilometre pace) it is unlikely you
can run 50 minutes for 10 k's since no one can operate at 100% for very long.
Speed is a vital component of successful endurance performance.

Six

Using
training hard as an excuse to eat and drink whatever you like. What you eat today, swims, cycles and runs
tomorrow. Training hard is not an excuse for eating junk. You don't put
low-grade fuel or unleaded petrol in a high performance engine or Formula I
car. Triathletes are Formula I athletes. Training for a tough demanding
activity demands high performance fuel. And remember it's CARBO LOAD NOT
GARBO LOAD.

Seven

Not
taking time to rest and recover. Rest,
recovery, regeneration, relaxation are all words to describe the process of
allowing your body to adapt to hard training. Getting enough sleep, having a
spa, getting a massage, doing some exercise for fun instead of training, eating
well and stretching are all part of effective recovery. . Effective recovery
has many benefits. Effective recovery techniques increase the rate at which
your body recovers from training stresses. This has two main benefits:

You can train harder
(quality)

You can do more
training (quantity)

Training stimulates your body to adapt and
improve. Everyone gets a little tired and fatigued from training. Being tired
is NOT a BAD thing. Being tired after training is all part of the process of
improving and achieving your best.But, being over tired, and carrying
tiredness from one session to the next can cause real problems. Recovery is
the process of monitoring fatigue and doing things to overcome it.

Sleep is a key recovery technique. Everyone needs sleep; some triathletes
need more than others. Get to know how much sleep you need to make you feel
rested and recovered.

Eight

Training
at too high an intensity. Many age group
triathletes, particularly those from team sport backgrounds, often train too
hard. The intensity of their training sessions is a little too high,
resulting in excessive body stress and residual fatigue carrying over from
one session to the next. Aerobic training is training which helps triathletes
develop their endurance - their "staying power". It is usually done
early in the season and prepares triathletes for the hard work and hard
racing to come later in the season. Coaches sometimes refer to this as "
the aerobic base".

Aerobic training is done at low intensity, with rhythm and relaxation. It gives
your body the physiological characteristics to handle fast work, to recover
quickly from hard efforts at training and between races and to burn fat for
fuel more efficiently.

Intensity is a measure of how hard your body is working. You can measure intensity
by training at a specific pace, timing your efforts, taking your heart rate,
training to a scale (ie. 1 out of 10 is easy, 9 out of ten is really hard).
How hard you are working AND NOT just how far you go is the key to training
effectively.

Nine

Not
planning an integrated, balanced training program. It is important that you find time to develop a
training program for triathlon, not swim, bike and run. It sounds weird but
there is a difference between training for the individual legs and for the
overall sport. Recently a friend rang me. He was very frustrated with his
training program. He had a specialist swim coach coaching him in the pool, a
top cycling coach working with him on the road and a track and field distance
coach for his run sessions. However, because the three coaches didn't share
training session information, he ended doing three hard lactate type sessions
in the one day! There are times to work on the specific skills and techniques
of the individual legs and times to integrate and balance a training plan
incorporating all three. It is difficult to make significant improvements in
all legs at once. Stress is stress. A hard ride places a tough demand on the
body just as a hard run or hard swim.

Ten

Copying
the "secrets" of champions. Much
of what we know about athletic performance we have learned from observing,
monitoring and testing great athletes. The challenge is that the factors that
lead to these athletes becoming great are not always reproducible or even
measurable. Listen to the great ones. Learn from their successes and avoid
reproducing their mistakes. Above all, take from the champions what is
appropriate and applicable to you at your level of competition and suitable
to your training background.

In
summary:

T - Triathlon
is a great sport.

R - Rest,
recover, regenerate and remember to take it easy from time to time.

A - Avoid,
tricks, cons, gimmicks and fads. Success has few short cuts and fewer
rules.

T - Train as
you would race, that is with a balanced program developing skills and
excellence in areas of weakness and maintaining a competitive advantage in
your strengths.

H - Hard
work is rarely without reward. Train hard then rest hard.

L - Learn
from the successful techniques of the great triathletes then improve on
them. Do what the successful triathletes of 2008 will be doing, but do it
now.

O - One
thing is certain. Develop your training program on a philosophy of staying
healthy, uninjured and with a commitment to sensible balanced training with
adequate time for effective recovery and you will do well.

This video shows many of the sea swim skills we’ll be striving to replicate during the season. Watch out for the start and exit dolphining, drafting, body surfing and even some real dolphins. The event is the Noosa 1000 Ocean Swim event.

Ironman & Triathlon coaching

Triathlon and Ironman coach services in Wellington

Partnering with training peaks

I have launched a facebook site for the welligton coastline sea swim series - link above

NZ Sprint Tri Champs 11 Feb '18

Good luck to all the Wellington athletes in Kinloch tomorrow. 750 m swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run. Short and sweet. Especially good luck to athletes I see often for coaching/training - Cathy Alderton, Julia Bracegirdle, Anna Guy and Gemma Kennedy. Cathy is the only one of them who has done this event out of the 3 of them. Have run tomorrow.

Ultraman Australia

Dave Oliver set a huge challenge for himself & knocked it off really well in May's Ultraman Australia. It would be fair to say everything went to plan and he finished an astonishing 6th place, out of 41 entrants. The event was comprised of 3 competition days -

Day 1 = 10 k swim + 146 k bike; Day 2 = 284 k bike; Day 3 = 84 k run

Sarah Dwen, Claire Samuels, Ange Clothier and I supported Dave to complete the course and had a ball. We were very proud of Dave and ourselves, it's fair to say! The event was fabulous and we may see another Tractioneer do it next year, aye Claire!

Ironman Athletes - hats off!

Wow, what a weekend we have just had. Claire, Mike, Sarah & Adrienne were so awesome during the Ironman event. All out-performed their goals by 30 mins! But for me it was the fun they had during the event which I was most proud of. What's a sport that you don't love? So, so proud. Thanks also to the great team of supporters who traveled to Taupo & added to an enormously memorable occasion. Coach is rapt!

Performances of the Week: Kinloch

Bayley .... breaking the Sovereign ribbon at the end of the women's event and showing a real maturity in the bike leg and on a tough circuit.

Callum Hancock showed the spirit of a great sportsperson by running in together with the other boy he was racing.

Kinloch National Sprint Champs

So this was the most important points event if you want to qualify for the NZ Team which will race in Mexico later this year. Double points on the offer. We had great results with the exception of Juliet not finishing due to a flat tire early in the bike leg. Bayley won the whole affair - that's the women's race! Callum Hancock ran over the line first in the youth event. Harrison was 1st overall off the bike and finished his best ever placing, 4th in the juniors. Liam had a stunning swim and run & finished 10th. Annabelle and Sarah Croxford finished there 1st big time events and loved the experience after feeling really nervous. Euan had a boomer and finished without injury (yay). Barbara finished 4 mins faster than last year & in doing so found the run tough. It was very hot and everyone suffered in the run leg. Sophia had her usual good race, in the shadows ... watch that one! David Brechin-Smith had a solid race but found the run hot stuff. Nick didn't race as he fell off his bike early last week (he's OK but a bit scrapped up). So it was a great showing. Cathy Alderton won her age group title also! Storming performance.

Well done everyone and also the supporters - The Hitchins; Korena Moon, The Hancocks and Myles Carson.

Performance of the Week

This week we have joint performance titles - Ange Clothier and Annabelle Brown. Both stood on the start line of their 1st triathlon finish feeling very nervous. For Ange it was her 3rd try at finishing a swim leg successfully. For Annabelle she had started to invest a lot of time training in this new sport. Both felt sick. Ange lept with delight as she successfully exited the swim before going on to finish the medium distance Scorcher - 500m swim, 20k bike, 5 k run - and Annabelle was all beaming smiles as she explained her feelings and how much she absolutely loved the experience. We're all really proud of you two - you put it on the line and came out winners!!

Half Ironman Results

What a wonderful 3 weekends of Half Ironman events and results we've seen.

* TAUPO 70.3 First was Taupo and then Rotorua. We had a few athletes doing Taupo and although Peter Kane hasn't been training with us so much lately I count him as one of our team and my super athletes. Peter finished 1st in his age group with a super sub 5 hr time. Tammy Reed finished in 4 hrs 54 mins. Mel did a PB and Anthony also had a solid event. Ross Capill team did a great job of officiating.

* IRONMOARI HALF Amy Barbara blitzed her first half I event with a 26 min swim (bit short in distance; 2 hr 53 min bike and 1 hr 52 min run. She did it fast and did it easy. We think she is destined for bigger things!

Results Galore

Crazy stuff for the 1st big racing weekend of the season. So many athletes cracking PBs and standing on podiums. Let's retire now!

Tammy Reed - was a star in both the NZ Aq Champs & Tinman Sprint. 1st in AG.

SpringBike400: The Rapa

We had 3 days of blissful cycling training over Labour Weekend based in Masterton. What a pleasure it was - we're going to have another camp in February.

Mak-Attack Winter Triathlon ~ great day out!

Wairarapa Womens100 Bike Ride ~ over 80 women!!

Wed Run Squad - Anderson Park, The Gardens 5:30 pm

Get fit to fly this winter. SIgn up now.

Cook Strait conquered!

coach digs deep to win south island GC, tour of nz (bike)

Bayley-Rose van der coolwyk!

harrison Hitchins!

Helen's Going to Kona!

How happy are we all - one of our group is off to the big Island to represent NZ at the Ironman World Championships. Great job at IMNZ. You made us all very proud. The result was based not only on talent but diligent training practices. You blew us all away Helen - great job!

Feb 2015, TriNZ Youth Camp, Takapuna

I spent 3 days with 78 young Kiwi triathletes aged 14.5-18yrs of age in Takapuna over the weekend. We have some VERY talented athletes jiggling around in the wings of greatness. Some great nurturing will see us bring through some stars we can be very proud of! .....

Ironman Camp:

I'm feeling buzzy after a great weekend in which every athletes made progress towards Ironman, & also simply being a switched on triathlete!. Finishing Ironman seems less scary now!

Huge Changes in Performance in just months

Cathy Alderton turned her performance around in 8 months of tailored training - a small investment which resulted in a silver medal at the Aquathon Worlds and 10th in the Sprint Worlds - sign up now and let's get on with finding your potential.

Tuesday Windtrainer Session

If you are serious about improving your bike speed then come to this session. 75-90 mins of pure cycling genious. Build your power & fitness for a much faster tougher you!